1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to golf instructional or training devices used to improve putting and other strokes around the green.
2. Background Information
Most golfers would agree and statistics show that during a round of golf the majority of strokes are taken around and on the green. Knowing that any improvement in this area would have an enormous effect on a their overall score, golfers have attempted to improve their putting skills by many different methods: namely different styles and components of putters, putting methodology and putting training devices.
Unfortunately the putting devices that have been presented to the public have only focused on individual segments of the putting stroke. Frequently they involved attaching something either to the putter itself, to the golfer, or some restrictive means of connecting both the putter and golfer together. These devices when attached were awkward and cumbersome: and to use these devices the golfer had to adjust to unusual or unnecessary positions; in effect jeopardizing the golfer's sense of touch and feel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4085936 to Patterson 1978, had a hook like extension that needed to be pulled to operate the mechanism during the training movement itself; unfortunately this would illustrate what we are talking about as an unnatural, jerky movement that would interfere with the smoothness of the stroke. Any movements required by the inherent design of the training device other that the one being trained should have only the tiniest effect on the smoothness of the total movement.
Since all golfers have different physical characteristics and their approach to putting varies, any training aid that constrains the golfer in order to make them fit a particular method will be ineffective. As we observe the acknowledged great players of all time, we find that they all had different styles of swinging and putting. We see that Bobby Jones, for example, had a very wristy putting stroke. Current instruction would actually teach just the opposite of his stroke, one where the wrists do not vary from their initial configuration during the whole stroke. So we can see there is a need to accommodate all types of putters, no matter what their individual style. For a training device to be helpful it must allow the users to complete their distinctive individual action without restraint. The golfer's usual stance, grip and feel should not be affected by the training device. Also the training device must have feedback on the most important aspects of putting, distance and direction.
The art of putting is composed of two things, direction and distance. Directional control is further broken down into squareness of the clubhead at separation of the ball from the clubhead and direction of the stroke. Most golfers concentrate on one or the other and this causes them to miss putts. A training device that would give golfers a sense of the feel of both acceleration variance, squareness at impact, with the clubhead and shaft moving down the target line at separation, without limiting their personal putting style, and with instant feedback as to the path and distance of the ball would be very helpful.